Coulomb three-body effects in low-energy impact ionization of H(1s)

Few Body Effects in the Electron and Positron Impact Ionization of Atoms

Triple differential cross sections (TDCS) are presented for the electron and positron impact ionization of inert gas atoms in a range of energy sharing geometries where a number of significant few body effects compete to define the shape of the TDCS. Using both positrons and electrons as projectiles has opened up the possibility of performing complementary studies which could effectively isolate competing interactions that cannot be separately detected in an experiment with a single projectile. Results will be presented in kinematics where the electron impact ionization appears to be well understood and using the same kinematics positron cross sections will be presented. The kinematics are then varied in order to focus on the role of distortion, post collision interaction (pci), and interference effects.

The Distorted-Wave Born Approach for Calculating Electron-Impact Ionization of Molecules

The distorted-wave Born approximation (DWBA) has been one of the most successful theoretical approaches for treating electron collisions with complicated atoms, and recently the DWBA has been successfully extended to treat electron-impact ionization of molecules. The purpose of this paper is to give an overview of that development and to provide a summary of the recent experimental and theoretical works examining low to intermediate energy electron-impact single ionization of molecules.

Three-body Coulomb problem probed by mapping the Bethe surface in ionizing ion-atom collisions

The three-body Coulomb problem has been explored in kinematically complete experiments on single ionization of helium by 100 MeV/u C(6+) and 3.6 MeV/u Au(53+) impact. Low-energy electron emission ( E(e)<150 eV) as a function of the projectile deflection theta(p) (momentum transfer), i.e., the Bethe surface [15], has been mapped with Delta theta(p)+/-25 nanoradian resolution at extremely large perturbations ( 3.6 MeV/u Au(53+)) where single ionization occurs at impact parameters of typically 10 times the He K-shell radius. The experimental data are not in agreement with state-of-the-art continuum distorted wave-eikonal initial state theory.

Collisional breakup in a quantum system of three charged particles

Since the invention of quantum mechanics, even the simplest example of the collisional breakup of a system of charged particles, e(-) + H --> H(+) + e(-) + e(-) (where e(-) is an electron and H is hydrogen), has resisted solution and is now one of the last unsolved fundamental problems in atomic physics. A complete solution requires calculation of the energies and directions for a final state in which all three particles are moving away from each other. Even with supercomputers, the correct mathematical description of this state has proved difficult to apply. A framework for solving ionization problems in many areas of chemistry and physics is finally provided by a mathematical transformation of the Schrodinger equation that makes the final state tractable, providing the key to a numerical solution of this problem that reveals its full dynamics.